Hacks

As you know the big news was iPhone SIM Free finally unveiling their commercial unlocking Software to the world although it is plagued with problems that not only affect iPhone users but the company itself, hackers have taken aim and set their sights on the unlock solution.

However it is shady business, should a firmware update re-lock your iPhone or should the unlock go awry, you will be charged for an addition license.

“In the event Apple comes out with a new firmware upgrade which will lock your phone again you hereby agree that Wireless Imports nor its vendor will be held liable or responsible for unlocking your handset again,If your handset becomes locked you will be charged to unlock it again.”

Apple has yet to release any official chat client for the iPhone. The closest to chatting is SMS and was probably AT&T’s choosing, not Apple’s but that isn’t to say a native App can’t fill in the IM void. Two new Apps were unloosed, a native IM and IRC client.

TUAW reports “Arminius” and “Pogi” have created an IM App (Apollo IM) and an IRC App (iRCm). Mind you these Apps although native are not distributed through Apple but require a jail broken iPhone and Installer.app.

I took a peek at Apollo IM and although it’s at V.-1 (yes, version negative 1, even though it’s a Beta I got a chuckle out of that) it still has a long, long way to go. I couldn’t even get the App to sign onto my AIM screen name and .Mac was a no go. However there have been those luckier than me and I am thrilled the messaging space is starting to grow on the iPhone.

IRCm on the other hand (which I have not tried) is purely an IRC App quite similar to Apollo IM. Besides common interface subtleties both Apps… more...

For a third time I’ll repeat it: the iPhone losing AT&T exclusivity was big, it was massive, it was probably more important than your aunt’s wedding. However you may need some schooling on what you can do with an unlocked iPhone.

First off you cannot inflict physical damage, attempt forced entry of a vehicle or use it to attract women outside your age group. Now that we have reinforced those silly problems it’s time to tackle the more serious, is unlocking the iPhone legal?

Yes and no, Nilay Patel, Engadget’s Copyright attorney sets it straight. If you want to unlock your iPhone for personal use with another carrier that’s perfectly fine. If you are aiming at selling that unlocked iPhone eying some profit then that is illegal it probably is illegal (depends).

To unlock the iPhone you can only modify certain parts of the firmware. It’s all a sticky mess and Nilay can explain it better than this Blogger can.

I probably represent a minority of the iPhone community, the users who desire to hack their iPhone. We have legitimate reasons for doing so and I don’t doubt there is a mass appeal. We’ve probably considered doing this but have restrained ourselves for fear of something we cannot grasp, the lack of desire or to hold out for an official solution.

I took the dive the other day and can say I am very pleased with the results mainly due to a single App provided by Erica Sadun of TUAW. It doesn’t stop there, the work put in and the end product is very polished and probably something Apple would do themselves.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, I’m referring to a 3rd party Application installer simply titled “Installer.app”. I held back for two reasons, the current solutions require an Intel Mac and knowledge of the iPhone’s deep internals which was something I lacked. Fortunately Installer.app is now PowerPC compatible and simplified so literally minutes after applying Tuesday’s update I was already downloading and running the Installer. The process is so simple and straightforward even I, a user scared to touch Terminal… more...

Since day 1 of the iPhone’s existence amongst us mere mortals there have been groups taking aim at AT&T’s lockdown of the phone. We’ve had promises and updates, surely enough those groups have delivered in a Hardware solution and sure to be a Software solution.

Besides using a Turbo SIM there will be two new methods involved in freeing the iPhone. First a Hardware solution which involves soldering and most likely a bricked iPhone. I am quoting the hacker here:

So in one week exactly from this blog post(thats less than the time it takes to ship a turbosim) we will release simple step by step instructions for unlocking, probably not even involving hardware.
There you have it, one week you’ll get the instructions to fully unlock your iPhone and if your luckly, maybe a Software unlock as well. Just remember one week so that would be August 28th (one week from date of the original Blog post).

There are many stories in the past of people using the wackiest things as web servers. I think it all started with the Palm Pilot (or maybe it was the Newton?). People realized that you don’t really need much overhead to serve up simple html pages (that don’t get much traffic). Look around and you’ll find a Mac SE web server and a Newton web server.

So it was somewhat inevitable that someone would try to hack the iPhone into a webserver. After all, with Mac OS X and wifi built in what more do you need? Well, it turns out you need a lot more than OS X. Even though his Steveness keeps telling us over and over again that the iPhone is running OS X it isn’t running the full (or unlocked) OS. If it were, all you would need to do to run a webserver is to go to yee old System Preferences and turn on Sharing to activate apache.

But Steve doesn’t want it to be that simple. So some awesome hackers have got it going. Who knows, maybe someday a portion of this site will… more...

This is pretty cool, although I have yet to try it. One of the latest iPhone hacks allows a person to surf the net on your laptop using your Edge connection. Of course, you could also hook your laptop to a phone jack and have the same speeds, but it is pretty cool, especially if there isn’t a hotspot in the area.

I am perfectly content with my phone’s web browser so I don’t feel the need to whip out my laptop and browse the net using my Edge connection. At least this way, you can save money on not purchasing the Edge card for your laptop.

Cre.ations.net will go though all the instructions for tethering your iPhone. Please be careful, as the iPhone was not made to be tethered.

There are some adventurous individuals out there, and I am sadly not one of them. The very same day the iPhone was released, there were reports that some people were taking the phone apart to see the insides. As helpful as this is to others, I would never try it, but just in case you want to try taking your iPhone apart, I have some instructions for you.

Some of you might not want to pay $84.95 for Apple to replace your battery. Maybe, you don’t want Colorware to customize the color of your iPhone for you. You are a do-it-yourself type of person. The only problem now is how to get into the impenetrable looking iPhone. A company called PDAParts.com sells supplies to help repair not only PDAs, but your iPhone also. Why sell the parts if you don’t know how to get in and replace them, right? So they have posted a video which you can find on their own website and YouTube (of course) instructing you just how you take your iPhone apart.

Sure, some people are still waiting for the ability to unlock this badboy for any carrier but it’s progress right? According to Gadget Lab:

This doesn’t mean that you can use the iPhone with another carrier, but it does mean that you don’t need the special iPhone SIM to get the phone working. And if the reports are true, you can pop in any Cingular or AT&T SIM and make calls, useful if you are an existing customer and don’t want to pick up the iPhone call plan.

Although I have understood the desire to hack, I don’t understand the need for this one. Do people really want to go through the trouble? What if it doesn’t work? What if it voids the warranty? Is there anyone out there that is waiting for an unlocked iPhone and if… more...

Some people just can’t stand not messing with stuff. The desire to customize apparently overcomes the desire to keep in good standing with your product warranty. This brings us to the directions published on ModMyiPhone on how to change the icons on the home screen of your iPhone.

All you need is an Intel Mac, the Jailbreak application, and watermelon-sized nuts, and you too could mod your iPhone to basically whatever icons you want for your home screen.

The example given changes the iPhone screen to black and white icons and it does look really awesome. Create your icons as PNG and at 64X64 pixels. The file names of the icons are as follows:
/Applications/Calculator.app/icon.png
/Applications/Maps.app/icon.png
/Applications/MobileCal.app/icon.png
/Applications/MobileMail.app/icon.png
/Applications/MobileMusicPlayer.app/icon.png
/Applications/MobileNotes.app/icon.png
/Applications/MobilePhone.app/icon.png
/Applications/MobileSMS.app/icon.png
/Applications/MobileSafari.app/icon.png
/Applications/MobileSlideShow.app/icon-Camera.png
/Applications/MobileSlideShow.app/icon-Photos.png
/Applications/MobileTimer.app/icon.png
/Applications/Preferences.app/icon.png
/Applications/Stocks.app/icon.png
/Applications/Weather.app/icon.png
/Applications/YouTube.app/icon.png